A nursing student's memoir: The Royal Alexandra Hospital, Class of '56, by Dorothy Sande

Third year nursing students in the 1950's and 1960's finally get to wear white stockings and get rid of their ugly black one's.

I trained as a nurse at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in the 50's. In those days, the students of both the Royal Alex and the University Schools of Nursing were required to wear black shoes and stockings for the first two years. There was great excitement on entering our 3rd and final student year and finally donning white nylons and oxfords.

As a result, the day before the big day, the "seniors" of both hospitals tied "miles" of old black stockings together (with old black oxfords attached by the laces) and decorated the high level bridge with them. This tradition carried on for several decades until the mid 60's when student nurses uniforms changed to all white for the entire three years! (Now it would be nice to at least see a nurse in a uniform!)